Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

Are you implying that one of Kauai's agricultural products is an illegal substance? So your concern about Oahu residents coming and selling drugs is because they are going to compete with Kauai producers? Never mind. How about I just answer the question. The primary "legal" agriculture products of Kauai are coffee and flowers. Bananas, papayas, green vegetables, etc. are also part of what is produced on Kauai. There is also honey, taro, pork and numerous other items. Could there be more? Absolutely.

See, this is what CF was implying with his comments about agriculture from Kauai, that there isn't much legit agriculture coming from there. I find that ironic since Kauai is nicknamed the Garden Isle. Maybe agriculture has been dying off, not because things can't grow there but because the cost is prohibitive and competition is fierce. So here we have someone trying to kill off something that may have lowered shipping cost, provided better access. The funny thing is, if the ferry indeed provides lowered costs, agriculture could possibly rebound and that in turn keeps Kauai rural and undeveloped, the things that protesters are howling for. Irony......

Right now they have to depend upon either the YB stranglehold or very expensive air freight. The HSF would allow an farmer/producer to take a vehicle they already own, drive onto the ferry and make the trip to deliver goods to Oahu (where it has been proven that people will pay a premium for quality, locally grown/produced products) for a cost significantly less than must be paid to YB and in a more timely fashion. The farmer/ag producer can then drive back on the HSF and go home. Faster, less expensive, more direct and with excellent potential that said farmer/producer will put the profits back into expanding their operation.

I can already see protesters arguing that the ferry only does 1 trip a day and the turnaround window is so short, drivers will need to stay over. But I attribute this to the very fact that the ferry tried shifting departure/arrival hours to fit better with traffic hours. Also, at the end of the day, it's just one boat. Maybe if it was given a chance, more boats would then resolve the tight scheduling and truly open up access for farmers.

Indeed, there is a market for fresh, premium products. The organic trend is picking up, Whole Foods is opening up on Oahu, niche agriculture has a future.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

According to this Maui News story, the evidentiary hearing on Maui should be wrapping up next week. The only witnesses left to testify are for HSF. That means that Judge Cardoza could be announcing his findings sometime later next week.

On Kaua'i, the legal team representing the enviros withdrew their case in Circuit Court in favor of taking an appeal directly to the Hawai'i State Supreme Court. Unfortunately, with the case loads that the HSC has, the backlog is tremendous (that's why it took 2 years for the Maui appeal to be heard). Because of the legal precedent set by the Maui case, maybe they can move up this pending case and deal with it sooner rather than later.

Hopefully, though, the Maui decision will satisfy Kaua'i too, so there can be a resolution of this sad kabuki tale and people can move on with their lives, whatever the decision may be.

Miulang

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

(...)
the evidentiary hearing on Maui should be wrapping up next week. (...)
That means that Judge Cardoza could be announcing (...)
the Maui case, maybe they can move (...)
Hopefully, though, the Maui decision (...)

*sigh*

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

Cute story in an earlier edition of the Advertiser about the Maui employees of HSF who built a float and participated (along with John Garibaldi) in the parade that opened the Maui County Fair yesterday.

Argylle DeRego and Steven Phander designed the 25-foot-long plywood ferry using the actual vessel design. The float was built under a tent structure at the Kahului port that normally serves as the ferry's vehicle check-in site.

The scale model was placed atop two luggage carts and towed by a luggage tug.

Phander said everyone worked on the float at some point, and that the parade brought the employees even closer together as a group.

There was a mildly awkward moment before the start of the parade, when the Superferry float pulled up next to a trailer holding Hawaiian Canoe Club's two koa canoes. The real Alakai will have to share Kahului Harbor with the club, whose members have voiced concerns about how their longtime and traditional Hawaiian activities may be affected by the new ferry service.

The company's unit also had to wait its turn as the Pacific Whale Foundation's parade entry passed, sparking murmurs in the crowd of a possible collision between the Superferry float and the foundation's large inflatable whale.

Miulang

[helen]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

I am suprised no one brought this up yet but a segment of the neighbor island people who would benfit from the SuperFerry service are those going to Oahu seeking medical treatment that's only available on Oahu. Some people fly in and fly out on the same day, others stay for weeks on Oahu.

I grant you this is not a big number of people who do this but they could save money on rental cars or save time by shipping their car via Young Bros.

I did mention this eariler that students from the neighbor islands going to Oahu for college can also use the SuperFerry to ship their cars as well as themselves. And they can do it more often like during summer break, Christmas break and spring break.

[oceanpacific]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

Back during the old days, some of us neighbor island students at UH-Manoa shipped our cars between islandsfor the summer and Christmas breaks. The deals then offered by Young Brothers included a "free" return within 30 days, and 50% off between 31-90 days. I took advantage of this once when I shipped my car over to Hilo and then made the return 18 days later. We're not supposed to load any cargo (YB disclaims liability for theft or loss), but that didn't stop a couple of my friends from putting their golf clubs in my trunk. These were NOT pro-level.

I don't believe that YB offers any such "deals" now. It's "full-fare" all the way!

[mel]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

I don't believe that YB offers any such "deals" now. It's "full-fare" all the way!

That's what we get when we have a monopoly offering a vital service between the islands. Superferry offers us an alternative as a faster service at a cheaper price.

[waioli kai]

bi God reactionaries are US in $uperfascUSt Follies

bi God reactionaries are US in $uperfascUSt Follies
.

\quote==mel= " Superferry offers us an alternative as a faster service at a cheaper price." /quote

Who is "us" ? Your nationalUSt sense of US does not include Hawai`i , a spelling of which a bigot [and there are several such eternal bigots]
in the forum writes as being the same as the State of Hawaii. Your "us" is little more than yourself and near a half-dozen USers in this thread who apparently know next to nothing about Oahu's neighbor communties, and what they do think they know is all that they think need to know about the people whose rights they are so greedily willing to violate.

The rights of the inhabitants of Oahu's neighbor islands to choose the pace at which they decide to develop their land and exploit their resources are not inferior to the alleged rights of Oahu residents to travel to those islands packing whatever they choose, staying however long they want, arriving however they choose.

* bigot 1598, from M.Fr. bigot, from O.Fr., supposedly a derogatory name for Normans, the old theory being that it springs from their frequent use of O.E. oath bi God. Plausible, since the Eng. were known as goddamns in Joan of Arc's France, and during World War I Americans serving in France were said to be known as les sommobiches **.

**son of a bitch
1707 as a direct phrase, but implied much earlier.

"Abide þou þef malicious!
Biche-sone þou drawest amis
þou schalt abigge it ywis!" ["Of Arthour & of Merlin," c.1330]

"Probably the most common American vulgarity from about the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth" [Rawson]. Abbreviated form SOB from 1918. Mencken, complaining of the tepidity of the American vocabulary of profanity, writes that the toned-down form son-of-a-gun "is so lacking in punch that the Italians among us have borrowed it as a satirical name for an American: la sanemagogna is what they call him, and by it they indicate their contempt for his backwardness in the art that is one of their great glories." [The American Language, 4th ed., p.317-8]

.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

i've refrained from posting on this thread because honestly, reading the back and forth about the superferry, whether here or in letters to the editor in the papers, makes my stomach literally heave.

it feels to me like my neighbors would be happy i not visit their home (which is really OUR home).

it feels to me like my neighbors feel i live on the wrong side of the tracks, and am sullied by my urban lifestyle, and i'll spread it, like a horrid contagion, across their pristine home (again, which is really OUR home).

it feels to me that my neighbors believe people who are not from the neighborhood are more welcome. these people who are not from the neighborhood are not only more welcome, but where my neighbors don't want me to visit just for a few days with my car and my camping and my snorkeling gear, they don't seem to mind at all that the people not from the neighborhood buy land/homes in the neighborhood and help change the market so that both my neighbors and i have a hard time affording land/homes in the neighborhood.

it feels to me that my neighbors think my money is dirty and they don't want my money in their neighborhood. but again, they'll gladly take the money of those not from our neighborhood.



i'd been saying to eric that for our next vacation, let's go back to maui or the big island...or maybe let's go to kauai, where i haven't been since i was in the single digit ages. hadn't there been public service announcements promoting doing just that? have a vacation here in hawaii? you know--let's go have a vacation in our neighborhood?

at this point, i'd rather we took our money to the "ninth island." even if that's not our neighborhood.

at this point, i'm feeling like my neighborhood is so backwards, and my neighbors not acting very neighborly, that it won't take much more before i'd prefer to raise any future children i may have in a completely different neighborhood.

[mel]

Re: bi God reactionaries are US in $uperfascUSt Follies

Who is "us" ? Your nationalUSt sense of US does not include Hawai`i....(blah, blah, blah snipped)

Again senseless anti-American rhetoric. Same old, same old crap.

[dick]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

it feels to me like my neighbors would be happy i not visit their home (which is really OUR home).

I hear you on that one, and I've written about it before... I'm actually from Maui, but I'm damned to go to any "neighbor island" (and I use that loosely, as loose as a bad bowel) since I now live in the hell-hole known as "Oahu."

I'm now damned to hell, and will die a slow and painful death, because I live in Honolulu.

Pray for me.

[mel]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

I must be part of the "Evil Empire" even though I am originally from the Big Island.

God Bless America!

[oceanpacific]

Re: bi God reactionaries are US in $uperfascUSt Follies

Again senseless anti-American rhetoric. Same old, same old crap.

W's irrelevant ranting has reduced his credibility to ZERO ..........

[1stwahine]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

i'd been saying to eric that for our next vacation, let's go back to maui or the big island...or maybe let's go to kauai, where i haven't been since i was in the single digit ages. hadn't there been public service announcements promoting doing just that? have a vacation here in hawaii? you know--let's go have a vacation in our neighborhood?

I highly recommend the Big Island! No moa attitudes. They neva even know we were from Oahu. We loved every day we were there. Relaxing. Respect and you get respected.

As foa Kauai and Maui. My Roots goes far. Both my maternal and paternal sides. In fact, my great grandparents migrated from Puerto Rico to work in the plantations on Kauai. So did my paternal grandparents. Koloa, Omao, Poipu, Hailimaile Rd., Makawao is where I spent many summer vacations. I went to Koloa Elementary for a bit too. I have relatives on all islands.

When the day comes foa me to visit again...and "if" I be disrespected in anyway, be rest assured my grand parents will rise in me.

I am a Gaitano!
http://www.auntiepupule.com/blog/index.php?id=1131

HAHAHAHAHAH

Auntie Lynn

[woodman]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 6

I never did weigh in on this, so I guess I'll post now before this thread, too, is closed.

-------------------------------------------

It’s sad that so many people seem determined to miss (or reject altogether) the points made by opponents of Hawaii’s Superferry, and I have yet to see a clear articulation of neighbor island sentiments depicted in the media. Instead, I see politicians speaking in soundbytes (using what political hacks call speaking “bullets”) attempting to spin the issue and further their own agenda, while mainstream media outlets stumble around trying to find some trendy angle to put on the story in order to reach a larger audience.

This is not a rejection of tourism or tourists, nor is it solely an environmental issue as many have made it out to be. Talk to most people on those islands and you begin to discover that this is mainly an issue of small communities facing a major change that will bring drugs, theft and gridlock while they are left with little or no means to deal with it.

People traveling by air face stringent security measures at the airport, but with less than an hour to properly secure hundreds of cars, it would be impossible to intercept shipments of “ice” stashed in a vehicle and transported to off island communities by the Superferry. Moreover, the law enforcement and legal services in those communities are not equipped to deal with the increase in drugs and drug crime that they will encounter.

While copper theft is rampant on Oahu, and new measures passed to prosecute copper thieves, what is to prevent copper thieves from going off island and coming back with a load of stolen copper from one of the neighbor islands, and what kinds of legal/jurisdictional hurdles are neighbor island residents going to face when it comes time to prosecute the thieves?

This is not like porting a cruise ship because passengers on cruise ships usually only stay for a day and rent vehicles on-island instead of importing an off-island car that could easily, albeit unintentionally, import a harmful pest.

And it is not that neighbor island residents are rejecting people from the outer islands. They are simply unwilling to allow themselves to become overwhelmed by the many of challenges that the Superferry will inevitably bring. On these issues they are inadequately prepared, and to my knowledge, largely unsupported (if not entirely ignored) by the State, and they know it.

That is the REAL reason they are rejecting the Hawaii Superferry.

This is not a rejection of encroaching development because, with the Superferry there is no encroaching development, only transients and their vehicles being brought in to occupy small residential communities. If the state is going to allow such influx into small local communities, then I can see no reason it should stand opposed to widespread deregulation of Hawaii’s vacation rental industry where out-of-town visitors also occupy residential communities, only they are not just from out-of-town, they are also from out-of-state. Same difference!

To put it into better perspective, consider how people on Oahu would react if the Federal Government required Oahu to open its ports to seven massive ships from California, each carrying 1500 people, AND their cars (the numeric equivalent of what Kauai residents are facing). That would mean over 5,000 more people on Oahu roadways.

If, like the Superferry, there was only a short window of less than an hour in which to secure and load all of those mainland vehicles, I’m sure Hawaii lawmakers would find ample reason to raise concern, and you can bet that they would have their own list of objections they would want heard. There would be vociferous protests as long-winded legislators adopt a over exuberant posture self-righteous indignation in an attempt to inflate their own importance. Yet; for all of this, the Lingle administration intends to subject neighbor island residents to exactly this type of thing.

So while politicians and department bureaucrats busy themselves trying to spin a story to fit their own agenda, it is unfortunate that the mainstream media can only seem to find some lopsided (environmental or economic development type) angle to put on it, while the more salient points of concern raised by those who stand to be most impacted by the Superferry remain largely ignored.